In Democratie en totalitarisme zijn de invloedrijkste opstellen van de Franse denker Claude Lefort samengebracht. Lefort laat overtuigend zien dat de kwetsbaarheid van de democratie juist ook haar kracht is. Voor democratie is essentieel dat de macht als ‘lege plaats’ verschijnt. Zij mag slechts tijdelijk…

On 8 November, Jordi Wiersma defended the thesis 'Democratie, deugden, docentschap: de docent als gids in de democratie'. The doctoral research was supervised by Andreas Kinneging and Paul van Geest.

Growing health inequalities, rising healthcare costs, an ageing population, and shortages of healthcare staff are just some of the challenges facing healthcare, both in the Netherlands and beyond. These issues transcend the boundaries of the medical sector and touch on broader themes such as social…

In this chapter, Kohei Suzuki aims to provide a brief overview of Japan’s local government system.

Hoogleraar Encyclopedie van de Rechtwetenschap Bastiaan Rijpkema roept met een opiniestuk in NRC op tot een weerbare democratie in 2025: ‘Democratisch ethos vraagt meer dan een gloedvol betoog.’

How does governing work today, and how does society handle pressing challenges in ways that are democratic, effective, fair, peaceful, and sustainable?

This article explores levels and patterns of legitimacy beliefs with respect to multistakeholder global governance at ICANN. From a large and systematic evidence base, Jongen & Scholte have found that ICANN has strong legitimacy underpinnings among its staff and board, as well as quite uniformly moderate-to-high…

How and why governments engage with civil society as well as how civil society organizes itself and exerts political influence constitute the key focus of the research programme Public Governance & Civil Society. As such, this research programme offers unique expertise within the field of public administration…

In this article, James Shires and Tatiana Tropina, assistant professors at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, map the relationship between gender equality and cybersecurity governance as a component of good security sector governance (SSG). Here, it highlights the way in which cybersecurity…

This pilot project will initiate research on how heritage has been and can be mobilized to address climate change governance in Himalayan Asia. Climate adaptation strategies frequently include the sourcing of heritage, encompassing landscapes, built environments 4 and cultural practices. However, effective…

Artificial intelligence could help make the work of public sector organisations, professionals, policy- and decision makers more effective, more efficient, and ideally could make it more rationalised and evidence-based.

Africa is rising and increasingly seen as a potential market by economic actors from Africa and the rest of the world. What is the interrelationship between governance, entrepreneurship and inclusive development?

In this journal article, Dr. Joris Larik and Dr. Richard Ponzio put forward a broad-based pandemic recovery agenda that goes hand in hand with institutional reforms at the global level.

This edited volume suggests promising new avenues of research in analyzing coalition politics. Written by a group of leading scholars, the book clarifies a number of concepts too often taken for granted in the existing literature, performs theoretically-driven and methodologically novel comparative…

How are law and governance in China responding to rapidly changing circumstances, and what does that mean for the relationship between the state and its citizens?

Emerging from the first wave relatively unscarred to an increase in infections. This research analyses the response from the Bulgarian government to Covid-19.

Political Scientist Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) asks how international organisations can be compelled to comply with respect human rights. She finds that this is done through ‘pluralist accountability’: external third parties such as courts, NGOs, or regional organisations holding international…

Jan Aart Scholte, Professor Global Transformations and Governance Challenges, is a co-author of this book that offers the first full comparative study of citizen and elite legitimacy beliefs toward global governance.

The use of increasingly large and diverse datasets to guide urban climate action has implications for how, and by whom, local governments are held accountable.

The Politics and Governance department of the Institute of Public Administration focuses on the complex interaction between politics and governance. Our research explores contemporary issues such as the impact of global crises, populism, and polarisation at various levels of government.

Governance is a complex puzzle of organisations, people and divergent interests. Academic research in this field furthers our knowledge of the role of public administrators, of different organisational structures, of the people who work at such organisations and of how these organisations implement…

In the track Cybersecurity Governance, you will be familiarized with the breadth, depth and complexity of cybersecurity challenges. This track seeks to provide you state-of-the art with knowledge of governance and regulatory strategies available to address these challenges.

This article by Honorata Mazepus and Florian van Leeuwen in the journal Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions looks at how evaluations of authorities were influenced by four aspects of a governmental response to a hypothetical disaster.

This article investigates the sources of legitimacy in multistakeholderism as a major alternative approach to intergovernmental global governance.

Having encountered a series of shocks that pose an existential threat to our livelihoods, our societies have become increasingly polarized.

In the Governance of Sustainability programme students will learn to become a future ‘change agents’ who can develop and inform governance solutions to complex environmental sustainability challenges.

Are you eager to learn how to shape governance solutions to complex environmental challenges? Are you passionate about fostering a more inclusive, just and sustainable world? Then this master’s is the right fit for you.

With both national and international companies operating in the market, the expansion of global platform capitalism raises concerns and critique. To counter a perceived erosion of local authority, various countries, particularly in Europe, have introduced anti-trust legislation against such BigTech…

Why, then, do governments choose to disclose intelligence and what factors shape how they do so?

The EUTAXGOV Chair will address the EU Standard of Tax Good Governance. This Standard has been introduced in 2008 by the ECOFIN Council with a view to tackle tax fraud and evasion by companies and individuals and as a pre-condition for third (non-EU) countries that receive EU development aid, and concluded…

The Economics and Governance specialisation of the Master in Public Administration teaches you to formulate problem-solving approaches to concrete policy issues found at the intersection between economics and public administration, specifically focusing on welfare states and markets. This specialisation…

In the track Governance of Crisis, you will be familiarized with the main body of knowledge on strategic crisis management.

This interdisciplinary project explores the promise and perils of human rights as a suitable framework for addressing the challenges posed by the governance of digital platforms.

The Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Governance of Sustainability

There are three institutes at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs:

The research group Corporate Governance and Strategy investigates how, with whom and for whom a firm/corporation creates/captures value, in order to inform practice and rule makers about governance issues. By focusing on the dual character of the firm as an entity by itself but also consisting of stakeholders,…

Civil service systems are often targets of criticism globally. This article seeks to fill an evidence void about government performance and meritocracy

The leading textbook on governance and politics in the Netherlands. The authors offer a clear and comprehensive account and have revised the text to provide full coverage of recent important developments.

LEGITIMULT examines how Covid-19 measures by governments impact multilevel governance and democratic governance in 31 European countries

In order to solve problems such as the refugee crisis, countries must work together at international level. This requires big changes in the way in which states make and implement policy. Leiden researchers analyse these changes and advise policymakers on best practices.

Crises like climate change and loss of biodiversity pose serious challenges for public governance, from the local to the global scale. With the Centre for Governance of Sustainability we contribute to addressing these governance challenges. Our focus is on how policy processes and governance practices…

The Public Administration specialisation in Digitalisation, Governance and Society prepares you for a future where digital issues and governance are intertwined. You will learn how to translate developments like AI into concrete policies and work responsibly with technology in public administration.

No nation-state can solve today's global challenges on its own. In the specialisation International and European Governance you will obtain a deep understanding of the interplay between the international, EU, and (sub)national governance systems and how this interplay affects the capacity of public…

The research group Cyber Security Governance will provide cutting-edge academic research in the domain of cyber, where modern technology interacts with traditional concepts such as governance, sovereignty, law-enforcement, international relations and conflict.

How to explain variation in the extent to which parliamentary voting behaviour follows the government–opposition divide? Party Politics article by Tom Louwerse et al.

The research group on governance of crises studies phenomena, dynamics and actors related to crisis governance. The Leiden University Crisis Research Center (CRC) is part of this Research Group.

Welcome to Leiden University's Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) programme! GTGC explores how innovative policies and governance arrangements can address global challenges in democratic, effective, fair, peaceful and sustainable ways.